From The Real Scene To The Painting Scene

"Portraying" is a necessary means to achieve the shift from "realistic view" to "framework view" in traditional Chinese painting.In the process of shift,the features of natural landscape,the artistic accomplishment,traditional Chinese garden and landscape culture,and regional historical culture are the requisites or restraints.In the early Qing Dynasty,the surviving adherent painters were unable to face the social unrest.After mental struggles,they dwelled in seclusion and were attracted to Huangshan Mountains in Anhui due to the development in the Ming Dynasty and the patronage from native-born Huizhou merchants,chanting poetry and painting pictures.With rebellious spirits,they oppose tradition,advocating the ideology in landscape painting of "fawning over the nature by shape" and "aesthetic conception through enlightenment and epiphany" by Zong Bing.The return shocks the orthodox of "Four Wangs" who faithfully observe the "six Laws(principles)of painting",thus creating a new era for traditional Chinese painting.As is known to all,framework view derives from realistic view but overtakes the latter.The major representatives of the surviving adherent painters painting Huangshan are Jian Jiang,Mei Qing,Shi Tao,Dai Benxiao,and Cheng Sui.Huangshan has become an integral part of their life.They depict it from their own painting ideology,presenting their spiritual world with the surviving adherent complex.Every painter uses the shaping schema,brush-ink language and creation of artistic conception to interpret the mountains.Of these painters who draws Huangshan:Jian Jiang achieves the essence,Mei Qing acquires the shadow,Shi Tao wins the soul,Cheng Sui gains the charm,and Dai Benxiao obtains the fluctuation.These "Huangshan Landscape Paintings" have become the spiritual habitats accommodating the artists' emotions and willpower.In conclusion,the painter group with Jian Jiang' Mei Qing,Shi Tao,Dai Benxiao,and Cheng Sui at the core,rationalize the relationship between "Tao" and "Law" in traditional Chinese painting:"Tao" should not be restrained by "Law" but the return of the latter as the objective.Moreover,the theory of "following the nature",and "fawning over the nature by shape" to realize the fundamental requirements in traditional Chinese painting.In short,"the Huangshan Landscape Paintings" are more of a painting ideology,even a cultural totem than of just a painting theme.However,they still belong to traditional Chinese painting,as there is some discrepancy to the aesthetic appreciation of modern Chinese painting in terms of brush-ink skills,shape,art of composition,aesthetic style and artistic conception.